The Little  Picture
by Emmylou
Summary: Donna gets mixed up with another evil alien that’s only after her body. She needs to find the Doctor, fast. How hard can it be? RoseTen.
1. Chapter 1

**Title**: The Little Picture

**Author**: Emmylou

**Rating**: PG-13

**Disclaimer:** BBC owns everyone and everything. I am happy to let them keep ownership if they continue this trend of bringing certain people back.

**Summary:** Donna gets mixed up with another evil alien that's only after her body. She needs to find the Doctor, fast. How hard can it be? Rose/Ten.

**A/N**: This follows on from my 'virtual' Voyage of the Damned fic- The Stowaway. No knowledge of this is needed, other than that The Doctor has been told that Rose will die in the alternate universe in eleven months (in his own timeline) unless he gets her back. Think of this as a 'virtual' first episode of series four.

---

"But I don't get it…"

There were sighs from around the lecture hall at the grating voice saying the thing they'd heard too many times in the three weeks since the term had started. Pens were dropped, shoulders slumped, and people zoned out as they waited for the lecturer to explain things yet _again_.

Sitting at a table by herself and looking totally unapologetic, was Donna Noble. She was surrounded by textbooks and papers, as well as a pink glittery pencil case and a lucky teddy that she insisted on sitting on her table every lesson.

"Why does she even bother showing up?" muttered a smirking blonde boy to a girl with rectangular glasses. He made his feelings clearer by dropping his head onto the desk and pretending to snore.

Donna ignored him and looked straight ahead at the projector, trying to take in the diagram being explained in simpler terms. They thought she didn't know that the group had labelled this 'Donna-Speak'.

After making long and copious notes and asking enough questions to exhaust even the lecturer's patience, Donna finally got to grips with the theory. The class rolled on.

---

Donna brooded over the day's bouts of Donna-Speak for the entire twenty minute wait for her train. It was like it didn't even matter how hard she tried to understand, she still didn't get it. And if she didn't speak up in class, she'd never get it at all.

When she got on, the sunshine blared in through the plastic windows and the heat made her skin prickle.

There was nothing for it. She _deserved_ a treat after today.

She licked her dry lips and tried to look around without being noticed. There were strangers all around. The coast clear, she slipped her hand into her bag and inched the _Heat_ magazine out of it. There were another seven stops left to pour over the shiny pages, but she couldn't concentrate on them.

When she'd signed up for the university, she'd expected some sort of _Legally Blonde_ scenario. She'd done an NVQ at a previous job, which had scraped her into the course. She was keen and she wanted to prove to everyone that Donna Noble was not thick.

So she hadn't expected the label of 'Mature Student'. She hadn't expected everyone to already know each other (or so it seemed). She hadn't expected her parents to roll their eyes ('not_ another _crazystunt, Donna') and complain about her mounting debts.

And now Donna was becoming the latest buzz word for 'thicko' on Campus.

She couldn't give up the gossip magazines. She still watched _Big Brother_. The big picture she'd been trying to find was still unseen.

When she got home, she dumped her folder, bag, and door keys on the glass dining table and burst into tears. Maybe there really wasn't more to her than _Brangelina_ and _Big Brother_.

---

Donna arrived on campus early the next day. She wanted to go over everything they'd studied so far, in the hope that there would be a bit less 'Donna-Speak' this time around. She strode along the mercifully deserted corridors towards the library.

"Scuse me…can you pass me that tube?"

She looked down and found a man of about sixty-five crouched on the floor by a grill. He was thin and bearded, and had a tattoo of a dragon on his arm that wouldn't have been out of place on a student. His overalls announced that he worked for _Hamlin Pest Control_.

He nodded towards a red rubber tube, which she picked up and held for a second.

"If I give this, will you gas a couple of the science lecture halls for me? Just enough to knock them all out before I get there?" she asked with a weak smile.

The man took the tube and began feeding it through the grill. "Sorry luv, we only do vermin," he winked.

"That's why I asked," she grinned. She felt relieved to suddenly find herself with somebody real – who had grown up and lived in the real world, and had bills and work and relationships just like she had before coming to this campus full of teenagers who hadn't done more than a couple of paper rounds. "Hey, I love those adverts of yours on the telly – with the singing rat!"

"Yeah – if I get that jingle sang at me just one more time you'll get to see me really use that tube," said the man. He laughed to show that he wasn't being serious. "I'm Rich, by the way."

"I'm gorgeous," she replied.

Rich laughed. "That you are," he said, with a passable attempt at sincerity. If she had met him before that Christmas she might have even believed him, in a way she just couldn't anymore.

Okay so, he was old (the university probably classed him as ancient, if she was mature) and probably just being polite. But she hadn't said anything so silly and flirtatious in ages, and it felt fantastic to be able to talk to someone without worrying that they thought she was stupid.

Just because she'd sworn off men didn't mean that she couldn't talk to them, did it?

"How about a drink later?" he asked.

Donna gaped. Okay…that was a good deal more than polite talking. That was a date. And he was old enough to be her granddad!

"C'mon…" he wheedled. "You look like you need someone to talk to."

Donna hadn't had a date in a year and a half. Her standard answer to any invite (these were becoming annoyingly infrequent) was a 'no'. Why was she even considering it?

Because he was a nice old man who would be easy to resist…

"Okay," she swallowed. "At _The Horseman_, around five?"

---

Donna hadn't had any romantic dates or encounters since she'd lost Lance. That drunken snog in Rome with the fit singer hadn't counted, no matter what anyone said. That hadn't involved romance or dating.

And neither would this, she told herself.

_The Horseman_ was a good choice. It was nearer the university than her home, for a start, which meant that she could very easily leave with an excuse about getting a train. It also was a pub that neither anyone from the university nor anyone she knew went to, so no one would actually _see_ her.

She walked there after her last lecture and found Rich waiting. He was leaning up against the bar, lager in hand, bouncing his head along to _The Hoosiers_ and mouthing the words to himself.

"You don't look like the typical Hoosiers fan," she said, as she joined him and ordered white wine for herself.

"They're cool," he shrugged.

She smiled, expecting a smile from him as if to laugh at himself for being 'up' with the 'trendy' slang. No joke came - he had used it as easily as any of the students she saw every day would.

And, white beard aside, he acted young. His clothes weren't obvious, but the turquoise shirt and sandy trousers were the smart-casual clothes of a twenty year old.

Rich was also polite. He asked a lot of questions about her – where did she live, what was she studying, did she have a family? Donna couldn't remember talking about herself so much in years. She found herself talking about Lance a lot, but Rich was sympathetic. It was only as the time came when she had to leave or miss her last train, that she realised she'd barely asked him anything at all.

"Ten more minutes…" he wheedled, inching closer to her across the seats they'd taken about an hour before.

"I can't," she sighed. "Got a train to catch…"

Rich leaned in and kissed her. She froze, this was not as expected, in fact it was kind of weird, but no one had paid her attention in a long time...

"I'll drive," he breathed after pulling away.

"After all those pints?" she smiled back.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of cash. "We'll get a taxi."

He hackles were raised by this further pleading. Why the hell was he pressing this? "No. I'll call you, I will. But I need to get home."

She stood, brushed down her skirt, and left the pub. The air was cool for a September night and it wasn't properly dark yet, just that strange royal blue colour in between dusk and night. Donna's flat shoes slapped against the paving slabs.

"Donna wait!"

The pub door banged open and Rich jogged to catch up with her.

"Goodnight," she said firmly. She didn't even look back. The broken, ice-queen part of her that had been urging her to make her excuses all night cheered her on.

Rich reached her side and slowed her down. "Look, that was a mistake," he panted. "Don't ruin the rest of the night. Can I walk you to the station?"

Donna's willpower trembled. "Just to the station, you can get a cab home from there, right?"

He nodded and they started walking. Rich asked her yet more about herself. "Do you mind me asking- exactly how old are you?" he said curiously.

She laughed. "Guess!"

For the tiniest second he looked annoyed but he recovered quickly. "I'm smart enough never to try and guess a lady's age," he smirked.

"No- guess!" she pressed, still grinning up at him.

"Donna, I'm being _serious_," said Rich.

Donna stopped and looked up at him warily. "Why? What's my age matter to you?"

Rich looked down at her, muttering almost to himself. "You are older than I would've liked, but I've been working so hard on the project that I haven't had time to attract a younger partner…"

"Excuse me?" Donna reeled back. "'Older than you would have liked'? Have you even looked in the mirror, pal?!"

"I need you," he hissed.

In a second he had swooped down and kissed her again. This time there was no romance – only a strange sort of hunger that had nothing to do with lust.

Donna raised her hand back and slapped him. The blow literally knocked him to the floor.

"You dirty old perv!" she shrieked. "Help! Someone help!"

There were too many hysterically shrieking drunk slappers in this part of town most nights to attract more than a casual look from a wary passer-by. She could fend for herself, but it annoyed her none-the-less. She didn't doubt if she'd been young and blonde and wearing a mini things might have been different.

"You have years ahead of you…give them to the Shadows…" hissed Rich from the pavement. He was shaking and seemed to be having a hard time getting back up.

Donna backed away from him, ready to run, or at least slap him again if he tried anything. "Look, forget it, alright? You've had a bit to drink. I'll call you a cab…"

"This body ages too quickly…" panted Rich. "Give yourself to me." She looked into Rich's eyes and saw them glow with a strange white light.

Oh god, she'd done it again - another alien only after her body.

"Get away from me!" she yelled, as he made a grab for her ankle.

The Alien-Rich hybrid attempted to clamber back to his feet but Donna was already backing away.

"I dunno what you are, but you're gonna be sorry!" She sounded more hysterical than threatening, but she didn't care anymore. "I got this mate – the Doctor – and believe me when I tell him about this he's gonna be MAD!"

She backed away. The Alien-Rich thing was making groaning noises that didn't sound human anymore.

"And – and," she rattled on as she backed away, "-and he's tall and knows this, like, alien Kung-Fu, and you are gonna be so, SO, sorry!"

"I NEED you…" the thing groaned. He managed to stagger forwards.

Donna turned and ran.

Okay, so she was on her own in the middle of the night. She had a couple of quid in her pockets, and only a Heat magazine, her study-folder, and a teddy-bear for assets.

What she_ needed_ was to find the Doctor.

How hard could it be?

---

**A/N**: Thank you to everyone that reviewed The Stowaway and requested a sequel. It's kind of a slow burning one, I'm afraid, that will cover the episodes (or at least my version of them) through season four. Hope I do it justice and please let me know what you think.

No Doctor in this part – however you won't have too long to wait. I'd like to know what you think of my Donna


	2. Chapter 2

**Title**: The Little Picture

**Author**: Emmylou

**Rating**: PG-13

**Disclaimer:** BBC owns everyone and everything. I am happy to let them keep ownership if they continue this trend of bringing certain people back.

**Summary:** Donna gets mixed up with another evil alien that's only after her body. She needs to find the Doctor, fast. How hard can it be? Rose/Ten.

**A/N**: Sorry for the wait for this one. I had some 'I've just taken on a big project, I can't do this' jitters, and suddenly lost all ability to write.

---

"Donna? What are you doing here? You better have that three-hundred you owe me…"

Donna wanted to slap Nerys in her smug sneering face, but she needed someone who could drive and Nerys lived the nearest to the university.

"You gotta come with me," she panted. "Something weird is going on!"

Nerys's sneer got deeper. "Something weird happens to Donna, what a shocker that is. How much have you had to drink?"

"Nothing! Well – just a few-"

The door slammed.

Donna's face twisted in indignation. She hadn't expected much from Nerys, but she was damned if she was going home. She needed the Doctor, and to find him, she needed a car.

She looked at her watch. The X Factor highlights were just starting. Nerys never missed it.

"NERYS, OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW! I CAN STAND OUT HERE YELLING ALL NIGHT IF YOU WANT!"

A minute passed. Time for a change of tactics.

"ALRIGHT – LET'S SEE HOW YOUR NEIGHBOURS LIKE HEARING ALL ABOUT THE TIME YOU GOT SO DRUNK YOU STRIPPED OFF AT YOUR WORK CHRISTMAS PARTY AND GAVE HER BOSS A _LAP DANCE_, SHALL WE?!"

The door was yanked open. Nerys appeared, pinked cheeked and enraged. "Fine! But just _shut up_!" she hissed.

---

"You want to go to the police station?" asked Nerys once they were inside her Mini Cooper (with a fluffy pink steering wheel cover that made Donna want to vomit).

"Nah – need you to help me find an estate," said Donna, who'd had quite a long and breathless jog to Nerys's flat to think up a plan. "Can't remember what it was called. Middle of London. Bit dingy looking."

Nerys gaped at her, and Donna was pleased she'd waited until they were already in the car before mentioning it.

"You're expecting me to help you find a block of dingy flats in the middle of London?" she asked incredulously. "Oh yeah – after that I'll drive you up to Wales to look for that sheep you petted once when you were six." Nerys ranted. "It'll take us all night! I thought you said you'd been attacked?"

"I HAVE!" yelled Donna. "And there's this man who can help – only I don't know where he is or how to find him and the only place I remember him saying he'd ever been was this block of flats. So I need to find it because someone there might know how to contact him."

She turned to Nerys desperately. "Look - I know we don't get on. But we're cousins, and right now I need help-"

"I'll say you do," muttered Nerys.

"Look – just for once in your life will you stop being petty and grow up!" snapped Donna. She took a deep breath and looked imploring across to the driver seat. "Look, I've been attacked and I'm scared – alright? And I've got no one else to turn to right now. Just you and him. Please help me find him."

Nerys sighed. "I might have known there'd be some bloke in it somewhere," she muttered.

But she started the engine.

----

Two hours later and it was nearly midnight. Nerys, was yawning into her hand every couple of minutes and Donna was only kept from doing the same by a determination not to give Nerys an excuse to take her home.

"We've been through every possible place on the A to Z," sighed Nerys. "And all to find a place that this bloke may or may not have visited once, to speak to some people that may or may not have known a family he was there with, and who may or may not know how to contact him. This is stupid. And you said that he'd been there about three years ago. Who's going to remember a bloke they saw once three years ago?"

Donna whipped her head up from the A to Z she was scanning using the weak car light.

"Believe me – you don't forget this guy," she insisted. "He stands out."

"Well how would I know?" snapped Nerys. "You won't tell me who he is or how you know him or how he can help!"

Donna turned on her. "BECAUSE YOU'D THINK I WAS INSANE!"

She'd had enough. Right now she needed support from someone, anyone. The last time she'd had any unconditional help or support had been with the Doctor. Ever since then it had been accusations ("_Something must have made Lance run off like tha_t,") and disbelief ("_Uni? You?_")

Nerys was no match for Donna in the yelling department, but she had a fair try. "I ALREADY THINK YOU'RE INSANE! AND I'M TEN SECONDS FROM KICKING YOU OUT OF THE CAR AND LETTING YOU WANDER THE STREETS – _ALRIGHT_?!"

"_ALRIGHT_!" Donna yelled back, not because it was a good reply, but because she was angry and scared, and aliens were about to destroy the earth.

"SO TELL ME!"

"FINE!"

They both reeled back, breathing in, ready for the next round. Donna realised that she had no reply. Nerys seemed to have the same problem.

Both of them burst into tears, and grabbed each other in a wet, sobbing hug. They'd never actually yelled at each other before, just backstabbed and bitched. The air suddenly felt a lot clearer.

"I'm sorry!"

"Me too!"

"I won't kick you out of the car!"

"I know you won't!"

"I'm sorry for flirting with Lance!"

"I'm sorry for telling Chris that you were thirty-nine!"

The pulled away and smiled weakly. "So who is this guy?" sniffed Nerys after they'd used up the last of a handbag sized packet of tissues.

"You won't believe me," sighed Donna. "But you'll just have to try. He's an alien – let me finish- called 'the Doctor'. He kind of…accidentally abducted me on my wedding day. He tried to get me back, but these aliens were after me. They're the ones who set the bauble things off."

Nerys blinked, clearly struggling with an answer. Donna held up her hand. "You don't have to say you believe me. Just help me find the flats and then I'll be able to _prove _it."

---

"Are you sure that this is the one?" asked Nerys for the hundredth time.

They'd finally narrowed it down to the right area using landmarks and Nerys's good sense of direction. By that point it had been three am and they'd napped in the car and eaten breakfast in a café while waiting for morning, when they could start knocking on doors.

"Yes I'm sure," said Donna, who wasn't.

She rapped on the pane of glass in the door. A tall unshaven man in a t-shirt advertising Smirnoff Ice answered.

"Scuse me – I'm looking for someone and I'm wondering if you can help?" began Donna.

The man's faced twisted with distaste. The door slammed.

"That must have been the fifteenth. They probably think we're coppers," hissed Nerys. She was not happy to be stood in a graffiti covered, chav ridden hellhole (as she had described it). Nerys did not like apartment blocks unless they were the sort with buzzers preventing unsavoury people getting in.

"Well I don't have a better idea, do you?" snapped Donna.

They rang the next doorbell. A miserable looking teenage boy with lank hair and a faded gothic hoodie answered. "What?" he grunted.

"I'm looking for someone -" began Donna. The teenager began to slam the door, but Donna was waiting for it. She grabbed his shirt. "NO YOU DON'T!"

She yanked him over the step and held him fast.

"We're looking for a tall skinny bloke who used to come to this estate. Wore a brown pinstripe suit with trainers and had stupid sideburns, had this weird blue box too."

The teenager pulled a face. "Why are you asking me? It's our flat he robbed!"

"What?" asked Nerys sharply. "He robbed your flat? When?"

"Don't you coppers talk to each other?" spat the teen. "Last week. We come home from the football and find this guy in our flat – he'd torn it apart. He threatened my dad."

"That doesn't sound like him!" protested Donna with an imploring look at Nerys, who just shrugged back. "What did he say when he threatened your dad?"

The teenager shrugged. "He just started yelling, like all 'how dare you move in here!' and stuff. He held this stick thing up and started demanding to know what had happened to all the stuff that had been in the flat. We didn't know and my mum started crying and told him to just take what he wanted, and then he said sorry and ran off."

The teenager finally managed to wriggle free of Donna's grasp and returned back inside, slamming the door behind him.

Donna sunk to the ground. This was it. Her one chance of getting hold of the Doctor was gone.

"Maybe we can knock on some more doors?" suggested Nerys timidly. "Or-"

"No," said Donna in a hoarse voice.

"Don't say that," wheedled Nerys. "Maybe-"

"Maybe nothing. If he was here, he's gone now. And there are still aliens trying to take over the world."

Nerys frowned. "Are you sure there was more than one? You didn't see any more, did you?"

"Well, yeah, but there are bound to be more," Donna said.

"Yeah but," Nerys popped her gum, "you only saw one, right? He's not going to be taking over the world by himself."

Donna rose to her feet, annoyed. What did bloody Nerys know about anything? "Look, how many aliens have you been abducted by?" she demanded. "Hmmm, let me think, NONE. I have had genuine alien experience. I'm practically an expert! And I have no idea how to find him, so how the hell would you?"

Nerys's sneer returned. "Well I may not be Little Miss. Martian, but I do work for the council. So you can stay here and reminisce about being probed or whatever, but I'm going to the office and finding out what happened to the previous residents and what happened to their stuff. Maybe I'll be able to find him that way. And when I do I'll beg him to abduct you again and not bring you back."

She turned and stalked off. Donna scowled and trotted after her.

---

Donna had always had the standard British perception that the council was a bunch of useless retards, but she had to admit that although the office looked scarily overworked and was badly decorated, the computer system looked extremely advanced.

"Is it okay for me to be in here?" she asked.

Nerys shrugged. "It's the weekend, only a few people here anyway."

She logged on and began tapping away while Donna fiddled with her teddy bear collection next to the monitor.

"Right," said Nerys triumphantly. She tapped the screen. "Current occupants at that address Dean and Sarah Plough, including one minor who was probably that unwashed cretin who answered the door. They're late with their payment too."

"Who lived there before?"

Nerys tapped away again. "A Jacqueline Tyler and Rose Tyler."

Donna's heart fluttered. Rose! "What happened to them?" she demanded.

Nerys frowned. "Ah…they were reported as missing, believed dead after Canary Wharf."

"Right…" said Donna to herself. "That makes sense. He said he'd lost a girl named Rose but why would he go back now? If he wanted her stuff he could have gone back afterwards, right? What happened to the stuff?"

Nerys shrugged and opened another screen. "Here we go…most of the valuables were taken by the bailiffs to pay back the bills that had occurred before they were classed as missing. There was no will under either name. Ah! A cousin of Jacqueline Tyler's claimed back the photographs and personal documents. He had the correct identification to do so."

"Maybe the Doctor claimed it," said Donna hopefully. Maybe he'd listed a phone number! "What name was the claim under?"

"Jack Harkness," said Nerys. "Mean anything to you?"

Donna sighed. A tiny picture was attached to the photocopied ID. It was a handsome man, but it wasn't the Doctor.

Nerys logged off and they both left the building feeling very low. "I suppose you've proved that the council aren't a useless bunch of tossers that couldn't find their own backside with a map," said Donna as they wandered across the car park.

"Well my work is done," said Nerys sarcastically. They stood outside her mini for a moment and she ran a hand though her blonde hair. "What are you gonna do?" she yawned.

Donna shrugged. It was boiling hot, she was sweaty and her only sleep had been in a tiny car seat. "Go home. Go back to university on Monday. Maybe I can figure out what's going on without the Doctor."

She sounded about as hopefully as she felt. If she couldn't manage basic physics, how would she manage advanced alien?

"I'll drop you off," said Nerys. "And if you're going to get abducted again, let me know, right? I want that three-hundred back before you do."

---

Monday rolled around again, bright, humid, and hot.

Donna had spent the weekend cooped up in her flat with the curtains drawn, fans blaring and stripped down to her underwear. She'd scoured the internet to find out all she could about Hamlin Pest Control and had to admit that nothing screamed 'alien invaders' about the website. Maybe Rich had been a one off, like the Doctor. Maybe he hadn't meant any harm.

Maybe she'd imagined the whole thing.

Now she was fully dressed and braving the unusually hot September once more. Whatever happened to good old British rain?

She walked across the campus – noting the Hamlin Pest Control van parked outside and deciding to check it out at lunch – and sunk into a sticky plastic seat in the lecture hall.

She took out her pencil case, folder, and lucky teddy, pretending she couldn't hear the jibes. She prayed to whatever god might be listening for no more Donna-Speak and didn't even look up until the lecturer spoke.

"Good morning! Let's get down to it shall we? Physics!"

Donna's head snapped up.

There, about to teach a class, as bold as you please, was the Doctor.

---

A/N: Okay, so it was a long wait, but please don't hate me. I had such a hard time with this one. I gave up totally in fact, and doomed this fic to my 'never going to be completed' file. I hated Donna. I hated the Doctor. I hated bloody Nerys (hopefully you didn't).

It was only some serious arse-kicking on my own part (and a few kind words from Genne) that got me going again, so all I can say is 'I'm sorry for the wait, but at least I didn't give up'.

Now the Doctor and Donna are reunited, things will be better.

And yes, this fic is totally AU after 'Voyage of the Damned' (another reason I nearly gave up – it was so much better than my Stowaway fic and I felt embarrassed for having wrote it)

Really needing some feedback now, even if just to get me going again.


End file.
